Fran Ramovš (14 September 1890 – 16 September 1952; pen name Julij Dub) was a

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. He studied the

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s and

onomastics Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

of Slovene.

Early life and education

Fran Ramovš was born in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

, the capital of the

Duchy of Carniola The Duchy of Carniola (, , ) was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire, established under House of Habsburg, Habsburg rule on the territory of the former East Frankish March of Carniola in 1364. A hereditary land of the Habsburg monarc ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

.Korošec, Josip. 1952. "In memoriam Fran Ramovš." ''Arheološki vestnik'' 3(2): 355. He studied linguistics in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

(1910–1911) and in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

(1911–1914). While in Graz he selected the topic of his dissertation (the development of Proto-Slavic reduced vowels in Slovene) and completed it in 1912; he submitted it in 1914 to receive his PhD.Logar, Tine. 1996. "Ramovš. Fran." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'', vol. 10. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, pp. 77–79.

First World War

In October 1915 Ramovš was mobilized and sent to the Isonzo Front, where he was completely incapacitated during the Third Battle of the Isonzo. He spent a year recovering in Vienna, and he was dismissed from regular military service in 1917 on grounds of disability and assigned to the territorial reserve in Ljubljana and Kamnik.

Academic career

In 1918 Ramovš was given a professorship and offered a teaching position as an associate professor in

Chernivtsi Chernivtsi (, ; , ;, , see also #Names, other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivt ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, but with the collapse of

he returned from Graz to Ljubljana, where preparations were underway to establish a university. The

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...

was founded in 1919, and on 31 August 1919 Ramovš was among the first four full professors appointed at the institution. He was appointed a professor of

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

and Slavic linguistics and also taught accentology, general phonetics,

Proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium BC through the 6th ...

, and comparative Indo-European grammar. In 1921, the son Primož (1921–1999), the later composer, was born to him. Ramovš served as chancellor of the University of Ljubljana from 1934 to 1935. He was a co-founder and member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and he served as the chair of the academy from 1950 to 1952. He received the Prešeren Award in 1950 for his work on the Slovene Normative Guide (). He was an honorary member of the Slavic Society of Slovenia (). Ramovš died 16 September 1952 in Ljubljana.

Commemoration

The Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovene Language () is named after Ramovš.Homepage of the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovene Language
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Selected bibliography

* ''Historična gramatika slovenskega jezika'' (Historical Grammar of Slovene) (a planned series) ** Volume 2: ''Konzonantizem'' (Consonants; Ljubljana, 1924) ** Volume 7: ''Dialekti'' (Dialects; Ljubljana, 1935)
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* ''Dialektološka karta slovenskega jezika'' (Slovene Dialect Map; Ljubljana, 1931)
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* (with Anton Breznik) ''Slovenski pravopis'' (Slovene Normative Guide; Ljubljana, 1935)
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* ''Kratka zgodovina slovenskega jezika'' (A Short History of Slovene; Ljubljana, 1936)
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* ''Morfologija slovenskega jezika'' (Slovene Morphology; Ljubljana, 1952)
DLIB.si

References